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There's Darkness, Even in the Sunshine State

Miami Jones knows that South Florida has its fair share of sharks, and not all of them live in the ocean. When a young boy is dumped in the water off the coast, Miami goes looking for answers. What he finds is a world of crooked bookmakers, slick Las Vegas Casino moguls and a desperate band of brothers playing a forgotten sport. Forgotten by everyone except the person who wants the players dead.

Miami takes Florida sliding down a sinkhole rather personally, so now he’ll stop at nothing to prevent the circling sharks from consuming his beloved home.

˃˃˃ "Put Spenser and Travis McGee together, and you have Miami Jones..." - Amazon reviewer for the Miami Jones series.

˃˃˃ Q&A with the Author:

Q: Why a Florida mystery series?

A: A lot of things came together to make the series happen. Of course I always loved Florida mystery novels, there’s a whole lineage of them. And all those crazy Florida adventures of and Mssrs Hiaasen and Dorsey and co. My family moved to the Sunshine State, and everything about the place made me want to create a bunch of fun loving characters. The kinds of people you’d love to share a beer with, in a casual place with a plate of smoked fish dip. But the kinds of folks who live by their convictions - salt of the earth you might say. There’s a lot of folks like that in Florida, along with more whack jobs per square miles than anywhere I’ve ever been.

Q: Who is Miami Jones? Is he you?

A: He’s not me, let’s start there. He’s got a bucket load more bravado than me. But he’s a thinker. His baseball career didn’t define him, but it did help form him, and I wanted to explore that side of it - the fact that most college sportsmen and women don’t go pro, and those that do mostly don’t last, and somehow that gets looked on as a sad thing. Miami doesn’t believe it is. Pro sports taught Miami to fake it until you make it, but at the same time to never believe your own press. Mostly he doesn’t. He’s too cheeky by half, but don’t we all like the idea of serving up a good one liner when we don’t really have the guts to do it? He’s not one of these private investigators who shoot to kill without repercussions. He feels bad when he acts bad, but it doesn’t stop him doing it if required.

Q: Is he a hard boiled detective?

A: I call him soft boiled. It’s what happens to normal people when left out in the Florida sun. He calls them as he sees them, but he’d never call his girlfriend a dame. She’d tear him a new one if he did.

Q: There’s a sports theme in the series. Is it a men’s adventure?

A: Yes and no. Lots of ladies enjoy sports so that doesn’t mean anything. But the sports are infused in Miami’s thinking, rather than being pervasive in the stories. More than half of my readers on my email list are women, so it might be a men’s adventure, but it’s not just for male readers.

Q: Speaking of women, Miami’s girlfriend knows how to handle him.

A: That she does. I hate those stories and movies where the love interest is nothing more than someone to serve the martinis. Danielle is Miami’s equal in every way. She’ll out think him most days, and she even has his measure in most physical endeavors. But she’s still a woman, so she doesn’t see the world in the same way as Miami and 'the boys’. And that’s a good thing.

Q: Will we see her in her own private eye series?

A: No. For a start, she’s not a gumshoe, she’s a sheriff’s deputy. She believes in the rule of law and doing things by the book. Mostly. That creates some tension between them because Miami can be a little too keen to go off reservation. Danielle would be in a police procedural, and I’m not sure that’s somewhere I want to go. But I like her, so maybe one day she’ll have a wicked sister who becomes a bounty hunter.

High Lie was a very fast paced mystery which I found to be a very easy read. Miami Jones is a retired pro baseball player turned private PI with a vast number of friends/sidekicks. The book starts out with Lucas, Miami's Australian kick ass friend/sometimes third partner who helps out on the PI jobs along with Miami's real partner Ron before leaving to go back to managing his Marina job; saving a little boy from being drowning by some real bad guys. I found this beginning a little hard to take because the violence was fine but for these guys to go to such extremes to kill a young child over such a small amount of money seemed a too much for me.

However, the book gets going really fast as I stated in the beginning. The book is told in first person from Miami's point of view, but it felt more that Miami was telling a story than Miami actually being a part of the story for me. I am very visual and like to picture everything going on in a book but I never got a clear picture of even what everyone looked like, only a vague impression idea. I also felt like the book jumped from one thing to another without really explaining how they got there but as I read on I felt that it was the author's style or writing and I got use to it.

This book is actually one a series but you don't need to start at the beginning unless you're a person that needs to read in order you will be just fine starting here. This is a very well written book and I don't know if some of the things were supposed to be funny but I laughed out loud many times visualizing what was actually happening but I could not give a higher review because I knew from the beginning exactly who was involved, every time a new character was introduced that ended up being involved I knew right away they where involved and how. Am I just super smart? That would be great but nah, but I am a huge mystery buff and to know every step of the way who and how and not be surprised at all drops things down a notch for me. Also the why dropped it as well, this I did not figure out but it made no sense, yeah it was explained but it was just really far-fetched. The car destroying has to stop!

Despite me figuring out the bad guys this is a solid mystery and easy read that I really think people will enjoy, I look forward to reading another.

Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.com

5.0 out of 5 starsHere's a terrific, fast-paced series of South Florida thrillers.

30 April 2015 - Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

Sometimes I just want to kick back with a fun read. Pretty often, that means a thriller with a Florida detective - most often a private one. There are a bunch of them to choose from. You can find some fun reads with quite a few good writers who fit the bill. Writers like the one I'm going to refer to here - A.J. Stewart. His creation Miami Jones, a former baseball player turned private investigator in South Florida, is the main character in a terrific series of books including "High Lie", a play on the words Jai Alai, the South Florida parimutuel-betting game with hard hitting, high flying Latino players.

This story is about 300 pages of fast moving action with Miami Jones interacting all over South Florida with Seminole Tribe gambling executives and the whole cast of hangers-on and lowlifes surrounding the gambling business. Good guys, bad guys, cops and pawn shop owners are among the long list of people Jones works with and against as he finds himself getting involved with some pretty tough players.

High-flying casino executives from all over the world who just want more and more of a piece of the Florida gambling pie will get Jones stuck in the middle of their greedy plans. And Miami Jones will find himself getting some help from an Aussie tough guy who's only too happy to be a part of the action.

This very fast-paced book will be right at home as you pop open another beer with a slice of lime and find yourself wishing your reading speed was faster so that you can enjoy the next action filled chapter. Lots of good looking men and women enjoying each other as the ugly bad guys try to take their share of the money flying around in the gambling venues where all the action takes place.

You'll find the whole series of Miami Jones books by A.J. Stewart thoroughly enjoyable as each subsequent volume fills the hours of reading time you make available for yourself. Have fun with these books. I sure do.

5.0 out of 5 starsThis is the second Miami Jones mystery book I have read and I have another waiting. I just love the characters.

26 October 2015 - Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

Miami Jones is a smart and cunning private investigator. He gets himself into unbelievable risky spots but conquers them with ease.She has a beautiful girlfriend who is a cop and gives him support as he endeavors to help his clients.Her Ex husband is a DA so there are a few tense encounters with him.Miami has a partner who is quite a character and a assistant who won't take anything from anybody.The setting is South Florida where I live so I recognize all the places they go.Highly recommended the books, light easy reading and you will find yourself laughing at some of the scenarios.

Absolutely love this author. His writing flows so smoothly and he makes all the characters and of course the hero, like real people you'd like to meet. I actually can see Florida in his descriptions and it seems like a wonderful place that I would love to visit. These books all have tricky mysteries to solve and are never boring. These books are not gory or gross but they are such fun to read!

When PI Miami Jones’ friend Lucas fishes a kid out of the water after he’s been tossed there by two roughnecks from a local gambling establishment, things get nasty. Miami learns that the kid, Desi, a young Cuban, was trying to earn money to get his father from Cuba to Florida, but was cheated. He, Lucas, and his sometimes girlfriend, Danielle, who happens to be a deputy sheriff, are determined to make things right for Desi. In the process of doing so, Miami finds himself immersed in the world of gambling, as toughs from all over face off for a chunk of the gambling revenue in south Florida.High Lie by A. J. Stewart is the third in the Miami Jones Florida series, featuring former baseball player turned private eye Miami Jones. I received a free copy of this book for review.Stewart, who writes in a style reminiscent of Elmore Leonard, paints a vivid and accurate picture of the world of legal gambling, especially the pari-mutuel scene involving jai alai (pronounced ‘high-lie’), and what can happen when money and the greed for money trump public interest. A cast of believable characters inhabiting a world so realistic you can smell the sweat of the jai alai players and hear the raucous cry of the Everglades water fowl.This is a great weekend read that shouldn’t be missed. Stewart gets better with each book.

5.0 out of 5 starsAnother win! Great series---really must read them in order!

21 June 2015 - Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

Another great read by AJ Stewart....plenty of action and plot...I really like the way this author keeps his characters true to the assigned personality!I can't put the books down once I start!4 days---4 books....I'm doing a review now, since I couldn't wait to read more!!I can see this series becoming a made for TV mini-series!